Any Saki fans out there?

[Badri]

Hey, any one out there who has read Saki a.k.a HH Munro...

I have loved his satires...just refreshing my memory by re-reading some of his immortal works! When I thought, why not start a thread in his honour...to discuss his works...

Here's a little background on Saki


HECTOR HUGH MUNRO, who wrote under the name SAKI was born on 18 December 1870, at Akyab, Burma. His father was an officer in the Burma police. Saki was sent to live with two maiden aunts in Devon at the age of two. Although these aunts were probably well-intentioned, they brought him up in a regime of strictness and severity. This left an indelible mark on his character, and is immortalized in a number of his short stories.

Munro was educated at Exmouth and at Bedford grammar school. He joined the Burma police but soon turned to journalism. He wrote political satires for the Westminster Gazette, was foreign correspondent for the Morning Post in the Balkans, Russia, and Paris. He moved to London in 1908.

He wrote four series of short stories: Reginald in 1904, Reginald in Russia in 1910, The Chronicles of Clovis in 1912, and Beasts and Super-Beasts 1914. His stories frequently reflect the manners and attitudes of Edwardian society, from the standpoint of the sardonic insider. They are beautifully polished, epigrammatic pieces of writing. The stories often involve a vein of cruelty, and often resolve on a surprise twist in the last sentence.

Saki died in the trenches of France in 1916, one more of England's finest writers to lose their lives to the War.

[Cygnus]

Badri!

Sorry I missed this thread before. I have read one short story of Saki's in which a young girl named Vera (satiric for 'veracity', I suppose) scares the daylights out of a visitor to her home by telling tales of her relatives or parents and finally in the end we learn from the aunt or mother's casual remark that all of what she just said were a figment of her imagination!!!
It was in the English Reader of one of my brothers' and I remember how it reminded me of O'Henry's writing, who btw is one of my favorite writers. Kirsten Dunst's character in "Jumanji" seemed like an homage to Vera, I don't know if script writers did that intentionally.

[Badri]

Oh yes, I know the one you mean - THE OPEN WINDOW.

I like O'Henry, but with him the famous O'Henry Twist comes only towards the end. with Saki, it is that way right from the beginning.

[Badri]

Check this link out for some of Saki's works online

http://www.users.bigpond.com/burnside/saki.htm

[a.ratchasi]

Mrs. Packletide's Tiger
Sredni Vashtar
The Mouse
The Open Window

These are some of the stories by Saki that I have read so far.
And which I enjoyed reading many times over, with exception to Sredni Vashtar. Why not Sredni Vashtar? Read it, you will know it then!

Thanks Badri for sharing Saki with us.

[Badri]

You are welcome, AR.

I am glad you are finding Saki a delightful read.